On June 23, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the co-founder of the Future Forward Party visited Uttaradit province to survey local economic and political issues and to meet its people, with the finding of local farmers’ problems on land and produce price.
A little while after the party’s visit, Phisit Wongthong, a supporter of the party – who by then also chairs Deputy Chief Executive of the SAO (Subdistrict Administrative Organizations) of the Nam Phi subdistrict – was accused by his organisation of violating the law when participating in the political gathering. As a result, Phisit decided to resign from his position in order that the organisation might run as usual without him. He nevertheless insisted that his participation in the process of representing the voice of local people is a legitimate exercise of civil rights and freedom that should not be intimidated by the state itself.
We would like to remark here that Phisit’s case is not the first and the only instance of how a supporter of the Future Forward is menaced by state officers. We firmly insist hereby that the procedure of hearing local people’s voice and surveying their issues is a creative practice for democratic political parties, while an act of political participation and expression of opinion is a crucial exercise of civil rights and freedom. We thereby demand state officers to stop intimidating and menacing those who come out to express their political opinions as it is an act protected under the constitution. We also demand that the NPCO Order No.3/2558 (3/2015) should be repealed and that political parties should be allowed freedom of action so that the upcoming general elections would turn out to be as free and fair as much as possible.
